EXCLUSIVE: Amid one of the most turbulent periods in News Limited's history, News Australia Sales chief commercial officer Tony Prentice is leaving the company.
Prentice is the latest executive to depart News Limited as the company undergoes a massive overhaul, although it is unclear whether his departure is related to CEO Kim Williams' wider restructure.
Promoted to his role in January this year, Prentice launched News Australia Sales to market in April.
As a new division launched under the stewardship of Williams, some in the industry have expressed surprise that News Australia Sales would lose its leader as News Limited restructures.
Prentice is currently the chairman of the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB). The IAB will be reviewing the make-up of its board, including the chair position, at its next board meeting in July.
Alongside Prentice, three News Queensland executives are also departing News Limited: general manager of Queensland community newspaper group Quest Newspapers Mark Elgood, The Gold Coast Bulletin's managing director Sylvia Bradshaw, and The Geelong Advertiser's general manager Wayne Buttner.
The company-wide restructure will involve the troubled publisher's 19 eastern seaboard-based divisions being streamlined into just five: News NSW, News QLD, News Victoria, The Australian and NewsLifeMedia.
A new digital group Innovation and Integration will also be set up, to be headed by current News Digital Media chief operating officer Stuart Spiteri. News Digital Media is to be phased out.
Williams insisted last week News Limited would make "significantly less" redundancies than the 1,900 rival publisher Fairfax Media will make during its own mass restructure.
“We will upskill our central functions and eliminate wasteful duplication,” Williams said. “The new model addresses areas where we have skill shortages and are duplicating functions. We will hire new people where required, but regrettably some roles will become redundant ... although there will be retrenchments, many roles will be retired through natural attrition.”
It has yet to be formally announced how many jobs will be lost but some reports place numbers as high as 1,500. Around 100 jobs based on the east coast have been lost, including approximately 70 roles in digital. These lay-offs have come despite Williams' declaration the company would be focusing more on digital.
“The blood-letting at News Limited has started this morning and quite ferociously,” an inside source told AdNews the morning after Williams' announcement. “The message yesterday [from Kim Williams] was so positive and we were all expecting them to follow through that everyone would be treated fairly because Fairfax made such a cock-up of it.”
Meanwhile, News Limited's ticketing arm, News Ticketing, has promoted chief operating office Harley Evans to the role of acting chief executive officer following Adam McArthur's depature.
McArthur left News Ticketing for a role in the establishment of an e-commerce start-up. News Ticketing is comprised of Moshtix and Foxtix.
Agostino Giramondo, currently advertising director of The Daily Telegraph and The Sunday Telegraph, has also been promoted to the role of general manager advertising sales, automotive.
Follow @AdNews on Twitter for breaking stories and campaigns throughout the day.
Have something to say? Send us your comments using the form below or contact the writer at alexandraroach@yaffa.com.au
Have something to say on this? Share your views in the comments section below. Or if you have a news story or tip-off, drop us a line at adnews@yaffa.com.au
Sign up to the AdNews newsletter, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter for breaking stories and campaigns throughout the day.